♔ day 27 ♔

[binarysky]

That curse the other day, with people's heads getting cut off and then just walking around like nothing happened—is that what happens here when people are destroyed? I didn't think anything was supposed to be left behind, but everything was left behind.

I don't think it's bad, but it's strange...I don't know.

[sigh]

Hey, Hanna, I found a store with a lot of ice cream flavors. I bet there's one you haven't had yet.

Comments

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

No, that's far from what ordinarily happens here. But it was a curse, and almost nothing works quite as it usually does when a curse is on us.

[binarysky.livejournal.com]

Oh.

Are there ever any good curses?

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

I think that really depends on one's perspective. There have been curses that have been milder than others, or more amusing that others, or less inclined towards decapitation than others.

For example, there's one that comes around from time to time where everyone tastes like different flavours of ice cream. Of course, one has to taste the other person to find this out, but as curses go it's rather mild.

[binarysky.livejournal.com]

Like ice cream? That's really weird. Did people go around licking each other?

[misterblackbird.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, yes. Either that, or everyone sat around licking at their own fingertips.

audio;

[treadingdawn.livejournal.com]

[Perky tone is perky.]

Ice cream flavors?

audio;

[binarysky.livejournal.com]

All kinds. I still like sea-salt the best, but it turns out there are a lot of them. More than twenty!

audio;

[treadingdawn.livejournal.com]

Sea-salt ice cream? Does it taste...like the sea?

audio;

[binarysky.livejournal.com]

It's really salty, but sweet, too. It's good.

I can't resist ;;

[whoistheother.livejournal.com]

Ice cream? Do you have a favorite flavor?

:D

[binarysky.livejournal.com]

Sea-salt. It's really good.

[whoistheother.livejournal.com]

Sea-salt? I've never had that kind. What's it like?

[binarysky.livejournal.com]

Really salty, but still sweet.

[manofgnee.livejournal.com]

Oh, really? I'm gonna take you up on that bet, Roxas!!

And the curses aren't always like that...there really are some okay ones, and...yeah.
That's not what usually happens here when people die. I think. I dunno, I actually haven't seen it for myself...

[binarysky.livejournal.com]

Good.

I didn't think it was, but this world is really weird, so I wasn't sure.

[manofgnee.livejournal.com]

You got any examples of the extreme quantities of flavors you've discovered?

Yeah, it is really weird here...I don't even think dying works like normal...since I don't think people stay dead.

Buuut I don't think that your head will come to life after being chopped off unless its a curse.

[binarysky.livejournal.com]

Moose tracks. But I don't think there's any moose in it.

That's what they said. I thought maybe the head thing was related to that.

][ all I waited for was a chance to make you understand [forward-dated]

[faroffdream.livejournal.com]

As it happens on this...peculiar day in the City, Sora has taken to doing a multitude of correspondingly peculiar tasks---cleaning rooms that make his own look clean (terrifying), stealing star fruits (not paopu but the only ones he seemed inclined to nab), chasing and capturing a firefly to show to a little girl only to then release it (at her request and his preference), so on and so forth. Near to the end of the day, he has, however, gotten sidetracked even in the mild throes of his cursed state, because depending on the degree of affectation, he could have been in the forest trying to slay a nonexistent hydra, but fortunately for him he is cursed little enough that the growing problem of his stomach vies successfully for his attention. This has resulted in the spiky haired youth visiting a number of cafes and landing him at present in an ice cream shop.

More precisely, he walks out of it, licking at a sea salt ice cream bar, thinking of home and what Kairi might be up to, and if maybe he and Riku are even there, which is confusing, but he still likes to think of them all together. It's how things are supposed to be.

Mulling over this and how maybe he should have gotten two bars instead, he actually passes the familiar head of spiky blond hair and distant blue eyes before he registers who it is at all. When he does, he stops so suddenly he almost trips forward--which would be tragic; the ice cream--but he catches himself with some expert flailing back into balance before turning and walking after the boy he has been trying to think of only as Roxas and not as 'my Nobody'.

"Hey! Wait!" Unthinking, he waves the sea salt bar at the boy ahead of him, but this is a rather pointless action unless Roxas actually turns around.

][ all I waited for was a chance to make you understand

[binarysky.livejournal.com]

It's not the same as going to the clock tower to have ice cream together with his friends, but visiting the big ice cream store with more than thirty—thirty—flavors is a nice routine in itself, even if he doesn't go every single day. Ice cream is good, but he only needs to have it all the time when there are people to have it with. Hanna is nice, but he's not Axel or Xion, and when he thinks about that, once again there's an ache in his chest where Roxas' heart used to be.

He's lost in thought and memory as he trudges toward the store, paying only enough attention to the other passersby on the street in order to not run into anyone. Maybe the distinctive black coat helps people notice him enough to steer around him, although it's always helped him be less noticeable in other worlds, but then, this is still a very strange one.

When he hears the excited voice, he only glances back, not even really expecting that the shout is directed at him, but checking it out on instinct. He doesn't even stop moving at first, but when he spots the person flailing with an ice cream bar in hand, he's struck dumb.

The clothes are different, and the face has changed a little—it's older?—but the hair is the same and the person is the same and Roxas is sure of that because he's spent so much time wondering who he is.

It's that boy. The one in his head.

][ all I waited for was a chance to make you understand

[faroffdream.livejournal.com]

A dumbstruck look gets an equally dumbstruck look in return, mostly because Sora has imagined all the different ways Roxas might react to meeting him in person and out of all of them this was not a top ranking one. In fact, it wasn't one at all. There is a combination of obvious surprise and then what Sora thinks for a second is recognition, but then he reminds himself that Roxas doesn't know who he is, doesn't trust him, and actually--no thanks to Xemnas--has been ready to fight him. One conversation that hinted at all at other possibilities is still only one conversation, and though Sora has optimism in spades, he's got a fair idea that it's going to take more than that to convince Roxas anything he says is true.

When he steps back from the situation, he thinks he would need more too, which makes sense in a roundabout way because in essence they are parts of one whole, but Sora has never claimed to know a lot about the specific technicalities of it and he isn't about to start now. Most of what he does is based on feeling, on how he hopes it will make things better for people or help them understand; that kind of thing that fuels the fight to keep what's precious and pave the way for all the other things worth protecting.

Snapping out of his own not-quite blank stare, he approaches in a casual, curious way---head tilted and steps not as careless as they sometimes are and thus sometimes end up tripping him onto his face, though later in retrospect he might consider that to be a good icebreaker.

"Hey," he smiles and is surprised to realize he's nervous. Nervous. That's weird. But it's also weird to consist of two beings and talk to one, so maybe it's warranted. Either way, Sora doesn't think too long on it. He doesn't think on what he does next either. "Uh," a pause of a second, "...want some?" He proffers the barely assailed sea-salt ice cream.

][ all I waited for was a chance to make you understand

[binarysky.livejournal.com]

It's a good ten seconds before Roxas can go anything but gape at the boy who's standing there offering him pre-licked ice cream. While that's strange and a little gross, it barely registers as he processes the fact that this person he's only ever seen in his head is here, standing in front of him.

And he's Sora. It's a second stunned realization as he recognizes the same voice he's heard speaking to him on the network, telling him things that can't be true. It was him all along, the boy in red who haunted Roxas's mind, and he never even had a clue.

"No," he manages at last. Time speeds up, going back to a normal pace after what feels like seconds stretched into hours, and the usual street sounds flow back toward his ears. "You—I know you," he says, one part accusation, one part wonderment, and all parts surprised. "Who are you?"

It's not the right question, he knows too late. This is Sora, an enemy who keeps trying to be a friend; he knows that much. But that still doesn't tell him who he is. Why has he been in his head? Why isn't he now?

[letxequalnull.livejournal.com]

It is not precisely what happens when people here are destroyed, although there are some similarities.

[binarysky.livejournal.com]

So heads don't keep talking after they fall off?

[letxequalnull.livejournal.com]

No. They do not. The head alone cannot speak.

[binarysky.livejournal.com]

I didn't think that sounded right.